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Great to see the B9 shipping project moving ahead strongly, with other vessels and designs such as the Ecoliner coming through too. We need working examples of these, and other ships, proving that the economics are there - routing, ownership structures, cargo selection and financing are going to be critical issues alongside the technical challenges.

Our Greenheart project, is building much smaller vessels, in the 75-100 DWT range, where the fuel costs per ton/mile are high. Low volume routes with long distances between ports, limited infrastructure and high fuel prices has led us to develop a South Pacific pilot, we plan for that to expand and incorporate B9 ships and others in a low carbon, sustainable shipping future for the region. Link Removed

One particular area of interest for B9 is moving biomass. Wood pellets are being imported at the rate of several hundred thousand tonnes a year to support the development of renewable energy in the UK. These are currently arriving on traditional fossil-fuelled ships, which, as Gilpin explains, is a real paradox. "The logic of using renewable energy to move renewable energy makes the entire supply chain more resilient,"

This is madness squared. Lunacy raised to the power of 10: Using a medieval method of transport to supply a medieval form of power generation. Instead of felling and shipping forests half way round the world, Drax could instead be powered as it was intended to be: by using the highly concentrated biomass located right on its doorstep. It's called COAL.

The cheapest way to run a ship is by wind power; the great sailing ships lost out to the internal combustion engine and, of course,to its mighty brother the steam engine. The deciding factor was average speed; the Clippers lasted as long as they did because they could hop along the coast and lay-off at anchor while loading local cargoes. The running costs of the Clippers was lower than the new-fangled mechanical marvels by a factor around 20/1.

Today we have mongrel cars which are running on a mix of I/c engine and battery-stored electricity; the PV cell has advanced to be economical; an aeroplane has been flown around the world using only solar power and similar prowess has been demonstrated (with ugliness) in cars. Is it not time that some thought was given to making the real freight carriers to run on a mixture of sail and PV power? with (if you will) a backup I/c engine.

Of course there would be a great improvement if we were to stop transporting largely unnecessary goods across the world.
Ken Green